Please Take Me With You

Chapter 28

GENEVIEVE

Now it finally is time to leave. 

Time to leave beautiful Turin.

I hoped I could remain here for just a while longer, but that hope has been now crushed.

I would have liked to attend just one more ball, to go up to Aglié once again to remember for a last time what it felt like to be alive...

Whatever has happened to Francesco earlier tonight must have been powerful enough for him to make all the plans he had prepared collapse.

I tried to guess what it could possibly had been, but I got definitely no answer.

The moment the Duke and Duchess of Carniola left, the house turned upside down immediately. Francesco summoned all of the maids to pack up certain things and he hurried out of the house to fix some matters before our departure.

Maids are now running from one side to the other of the house restlessly, as some are already loading carriages and some are still helping to sort out the Visconte's and my own belongings.

I am alone in the room though, and I carefully pack all of my evening gowns and fancy dresses and I shove my daywear dresses altogether with shoes and undergarments. I must leave a couple of things behind, for Francesco needs a couple of outfits selected to be what I will "die" with.

But as I place my jewellery into my jewellery box, a gush of wind hits my back. I do not precisely feel cold as it does so, but I do have to say that something of a shiver travels through my body.

I can smell him all the way from here. Umberto.

Before I can turn around, he already has encircled my body with his arms. I do not know what to do now...does he know that we are leaving tonight? Or should I just keep information to myself and don't allow him to  dig deeper into the matter?

"What exactly are you doing right now dolcezza?" He utters as be presses his nose against my neck. "Packing up to leave with Francesco already?"

Does he know?

Just in case, I will try not to reveal anything anyway. Things are to go smoothly.

"Is that of your concern, Crown Prince?" I say as I take his hands, forcing him to back away. "It shouldn't be."

Umberto smirks as he draws close once again.

"That is why I like you so much." He says, as he draws something out of his coat pocket. "So fierce and daring."

He hands me a red box with golden trimmings. I do not want to take it, but before I can do anything about it,  Umberto takes my hand and places it there.

"Open it." He utters commanding. "I heard you were going to Switzerland so I thought you better remembered me."

If me opening thw bloody box gets him to leave, then I will do so. If Francesco comes back and finds Umberto here, then it will be a big problem.

I should have never gotten involved with this man. At all costs.

I open the bloody box, and find a gold necklace with Umberto's birth stone and next to it lays a blue velvet pouch. I take the pouch and pull it open, revealing seeds.

Queen Anne's Lace.

I am more than acquainted with the seeds, since they were more than common in those parties I used to attend when I was younger.

Even I have used them just as a precaution a couple of times.

"Use them." He says. "I do not want you to end up with Sforza's child." Umberto looks angrier than ever, and the blood inside him is being pumped faster than the usual. "You will become my woman, I assure you that, but for now, I cannot make you conceive into the Sforza family."